Neriad13
Premium Member
27th Sun’s Dusk, Gnisis, Temple
I had a far more harrowing trip than I’d planned on today. It seemed as though all of nature was out to get me. Cliff racers flying in from everywhere, nix-hounds tracking people down the road, kagoutis cornering me in the worst places. I don’t know what it was. Did they like the smell of me? Or is it mating season and I’m simply not aware of it?
Just outside of Gnisis, I got in a terribly tight spot – two kagoutis and a racer came out of nowhere to bear down on me, all three of them tearing at my flesh, as my weapon cracked on their scaly hides and my shield crimpled into uselessness. My reserves of magicka were running low, my energy was drained and I knew my life was running out. Frantically, I tried to cast a healing spell, though I knew that I couldn’t summon the energy. Knowing that my life was running out, to a pack of animals, of all things, I frantically dove away, plunging a hand into my bag to dig for a scroll to use.
My hand fell upon something entirely different – a glass vial. It was a health potion that Sugar-Lips had given me so long ago in payment for a job well-done. Before they could get to me again, I ripped out its cork with my teeth and drained its contents. Scarcely able to believe it, I summoned the last little bit of strength I had and dispatched the remainder of the beasts without getting so much as another scratch. I stood over their lifeless corpses, panting, sweat pouring down my back as the sun set. Then I went on as though nothing had happened, slightly dazed. Sugar-Lips had protected me again, the loveable guild-mother. I miss her badly. I don’t even recall the last time we spoke. Was it before I left for Sadrith Mora, all the way back then? When I come back to Balmora, I’ve got to stop in for a visit, provided no one’s watching.
I wonder if she’ll be disappointed in me, at the path I’ve chosen. I wonder if she could understand.
At any rate, at least I wasn’t the worst-off person I met today. Just outside of Ald’ruhn, I ran into a frantic, haggard-looking woman who told me that her and her husband had been separated by a pack of wild nix-hounds. They’d attacked them on the road and he’d run off, to throw them off the scent of his wife. He hadn’t come back since.
I couldn’t just walk off, though I was in a rush to get to where I was going. Creeping up the bank of the dune she said he’d run over, I peered down and saw the problem, exactly as she’d described. Nix-hounds, down below. One by one, I took them down, carefully slitting their bellies while they were unaware. When they were all dead, I looked about, calling for the lost husband with my hands cupped around my mouth.
The wind carried no answer back to me. I rubbed my head and decided to try further down the road, fearing the worst and afraid to find out for myself.
At that moment, I heard a faint cry on the breeze. My ears pricked up and I dashed towards it, clambering up a hill on my hands and knees. And there he was. He was bloody and bruised, wedged between rocks and alive. Chortling gleefully and unable to stop, I healed him, took his shaking hand and led him back to his wife.
I watched them run to one another when their eyes met and embrace in the midst of the flying desert dust. They thanked me profusely, handing me a book that had meant a lot to them. Smiling, I tucked it away in my pack, slung it over my shoulder and carried on.
I didn’t want to hang around too long. They might have seen my jealousy. A pang of loneliness hit me right in the gut upon seeing their reunion. I’d wished that I was home again, where I was born and had spent most of my life, up until now. I’d thought I was over all that. But now I do wonder if it ever is possible to forget that sort of thing.
I made it to the Shrine of Justice and the Mask of Vivec by the end of the day to pay my respects. The Temple generously gave me a bed to rest on in comfortable quarters. It’s late now and I’ve had a long walk. It’s as though stones are attached my eyelids.
I had a far more harrowing trip than I’d planned on today. It seemed as though all of nature was out to get me. Cliff racers flying in from everywhere, nix-hounds tracking people down the road, kagoutis cornering me in the worst places. I don’t know what it was. Did they like the smell of me? Or is it mating season and I’m simply not aware of it?
Just outside of Gnisis, I got in a terribly tight spot – two kagoutis and a racer came out of nowhere to bear down on me, all three of them tearing at my flesh, as my weapon cracked on their scaly hides and my shield crimpled into uselessness. My reserves of magicka were running low, my energy was drained and I knew my life was running out. Frantically, I tried to cast a healing spell, though I knew that I couldn’t summon the energy. Knowing that my life was running out, to a pack of animals, of all things, I frantically dove away, plunging a hand into my bag to dig for a scroll to use.
My hand fell upon something entirely different – a glass vial. It was a health potion that Sugar-Lips had given me so long ago in payment for a job well-done. Before they could get to me again, I ripped out its cork with my teeth and drained its contents. Scarcely able to believe it, I summoned the last little bit of strength I had and dispatched the remainder of the beasts without getting so much as another scratch. I stood over their lifeless corpses, panting, sweat pouring down my back as the sun set. Then I went on as though nothing had happened, slightly dazed. Sugar-Lips had protected me again, the loveable guild-mother. I miss her badly. I don’t even recall the last time we spoke. Was it before I left for Sadrith Mora, all the way back then? When I come back to Balmora, I’ve got to stop in for a visit, provided no one’s watching.
I wonder if she’ll be disappointed in me, at the path I’ve chosen. I wonder if she could understand.
At any rate, at least I wasn’t the worst-off person I met today. Just outside of Ald’ruhn, I ran into a frantic, haggard-looking woman who told me that her and her husband had been separated by a pack of wild nix-hounds. They’d attacked them on the road and he’d run off, to throw them off the scent of his wife. He hadn’t come back since.
I couldn’t just walk off, though I was in a rush to get to where I was going. Creeping up the bank of the dune she said he’d run over, I peered down and saw the problem, exactly as she’d described. Nix-hounds, down below. One by one, I took them down, carefully slitting their bellies while they were unaware. When they were all dead, I looked about, calling for the lost husband with my hands cupped around my mouth.
The wind carried no answer back to me. I rubbed my head and decided to try further down the road, fearing the worst and afraid to find out for myself.
At that moment, I heard a faint cry on the breeze. My ears pricked up and I dashed towards it, clambering up a hill on my hands and knees. And there he was. He was bloody and bruised, wedged between rocks and alive. Chortling gleefully and unable to stop, I healed him, took his shaking hand and led him back to his wife.
I watched them run to one another when their eyes met and embrace in the midst of the flying desert dust. They thanked me profusely, handing me a book that had meant a lot to them. Smiling, I tucked it away in my pack, slung it over my shoulder and carried on.
I didn’t want to hang around too long. They might have seen my jealousy. A pang of loneliness hit me right in the gut upon seeing their reunion. I’d wished that I was home again, where I was born and had spent most of my life, up until now. I’d thought I was over all that. But now I do wonder if it ever is possible to forget that sort of thing.
I made it to the Shrine of Justice and the Mask of Vivec by the end of the day to pay my respects. The Temple generously gave me a bed to rest on in comfortable quarters. It’s late now and I’ve had a long walk. It’s as though stones are attached my eyelids.
